1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a powder/particulate material agitator, and more specifically to a powder/particulate material agitator configured to prevent accumulation of powder/particulate material in any dead space.
2. Background Art
A powder/particulate material blender 1 disclosed in Patent Literature 1 includes a vessel 5 provided to have a powder/particulate material supplier 2 and a powder/particulate material discharger 3 and configured to blend two or more different types of powder/particulate materials by means of paddles 4, a rotary valve 6 connected with the powder/particulate material discharger 3, and a gas-particulate mixture generator 7 configured to mix powder/particulate material discharged from the rotary valve 6 with a gas to generate a gas-particulate mixture. The powder/particulate material blender 1 has a two-way valve 8 provided downstream of the rotary valve 6, a return pipe 9 arranged to connect the gas-particulate mixture generator 7 with the vessel 5 via a return extension pipe 9a to return the flow of the gas-particulate mixture into the vessel 5, and a discharge pipe 11 arranged to connect the gas-particulate mixture generator 7 with a downstream gas-particulate mixture transportation line 10. The powder/particulate material blender 1 also has a discharge direction switchover unit 12 to switch over the discharge direction of the transported gas-particulate mixture by means of the rotary valve 6.
The blender 1 further has a gas-particulate separator 13 provided to evacuate the gas from the vessel 5. In the two-way valve 8 at a first position (see FIG. 3(a) of Patent Literature 1), the gas-particulate mixture generator 7 communicates with the return pipe 9 to discharge the powder/particulate material blended in the vessel 5 from from the rotary valve 6, return the flow of the gas-particulate mixture through the discharge direction switchover unit 12 into the vessel 5 as shown by an arrow A, and evacuate the gas from the vessel 5 by vessel 4 by means of the gas-particulate separator 13. In the two-way valve 8 at a second position (see FIG. 3(b) of Patent Literature 1), the gas-particulate mixture generator 7 communicates with the discharge pipe 11 to discharge the flow of the gas-particulate mixture to the downstream gas-particulate mixture transportation line 10 (see FIG. 4 of Patent Literature 1) as shown by an arrow B. This proposed arrangement aims to prevent the powder/particulate material from remaining in any blending dead space and being incorporated into any powdery product and to reduce the height of the discharger of the blender. This accordingly intends to simultaneously attain the prevention of the contamination and the reduction of the management cost of the blender.